Prison official resigns ending a 26-year career

Friday

Mar 17, 2006 at 12:01 AM

KAREN VOYLESTHE GAINESVILLE SUN

GAINESVILLE - Another top prison official left the Department of Corrections on Thursday, this time with a forced resignation rather than a firing.
At the request of interim Secretary James McDonough, Deputy Assistant Secretary Harold Greg Drake turned in his resignation Thursday morning in Tallahassee, ending a 26-year career.
"He left under honorable conditions," said department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.
Drake, 53, was in charge of prison operations statewide. His resignation took effect immediately but no replacement had been named by Thursday afternoon.
Drake's departure came a day after McDonough fired two regional directors, four wardens and three assistant wardens. The firings were explained in a prepared statement from McDonough as being necessary because those fired "do not have my trust and confidence to lead department personnel in the way they deserve to be led."
With Drake's departure, nearly two dozen DOC employees have been fired, suspended or demoted since McDonough took over last month. He replaced James V. Crosby, who was dismissed as secretary by Gov. Jeb Bush in the middle of state and federal investigations into numerous criminal activities.
Drake was first hired in 1979 as a correctional officer at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. During transfers to Putnam, Sumter and Martin Correctional Institutions, Drake worked his way up through the ranks of shift supervisor, chief correctional officer and assistant superintendent.
He and Crosby were among the prison staff transferred to Cross City Correctional Institution in late 1989 and early 1990 following a riot at the maximum security prison. The incident resulted in several correctional officers being sentenced to federal prison terms for abusing inmates suspected of participating in the riot.
Unlike some of the other prison employees who made meteoric rises in the department under Crosby, Drake made steady progress. He was named warden in 1994 at Taylor Correctional Institution after about five years as an assistant. Drake spent four years in that job before being named the Region II director of regional security and institutional management. After more than a year in the security job, Drake was named Region I director, a post he held for four years before accepting a promotion to deputy assistant secretary of institutions in June 2003 at about the same time Crosby became secretary.
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Staff Writer Joe Follick contributed to this story from Tallahassee.